Occupy Detroit demanded tax the rich for good DDOT transit during march Oct. 28, 2011
(VOD ed.: AFSCME Council 25 is also calling public workers and the community to participate at 4:30 p.m. in a march outside CAYMC vs. takeover of Water Department, Bing’s cuts –see next two posts.)
From the Direct Action Committee, Occupy Detroit
In response to a nationwide call from Occupy Wall St. to protest austerity cuts: A teach-in and rally at Grand Circus Park at 3pm followed by a march to the Coleman A. Young Center at 4pm.
Dear Friends of Occupy Detroit,
Thursday, November 17 is a National Day of Action to Resist Austerity.
Austerity means more sacrifices from the 99% so that the 1% can impose its political and economic agenda. Here in Detroit we would like to focus on opposing the cuts to public services and the recently passed Emergency Manager bill. That law hijacks the democratic rights of voters, public sector workers and the entire community. This is done in the name of erasing a deficit. But why is there a deficit?
Thousands from Occupy Detroit marched down Woodward to establish first camp in October
While speculation continues, the economy is drowning us in debt, foreclosing on our homes, eliminating our jobs and closing our schools and hospitals. The war machine demands to be fed. This is the logic of austerity — squeezing money from the meager services that remain and funneling it into armies and prisons and more tax breaks for the wealthy.
As we can see in the case of the takeover of the Detroit Public Schools, Emergency Managers collect large salaries while cutting the wages and benefits of public school workers. Teachers have been moved around as if they are cards in a deck. With little data to back up the claims, charter schools are extolled while public schools are closed. The resulting chaos has forced many parents to take their children out of the public schools. And, not surprisingly, the Detroit public school debt has risen and the banks demand payment. We see something wrong with this picture.
Rick-tator Snyder and Mayor Dave Bing conspired to establish PA 4, Bing now threatening to implement it in Detroit
Emergency Managers are put in place by the governor, not the people. By taking away any semblance of a democratic process, the law undermines our ability act in our own best interests. Emergency Managers act in the interests of the wealthy, bleeding the public sector to cover debts we’re not responsible for. The fact that Emergency Managers have thus far only been appointed to predominantly African-American cities and school districts highlights the structural racism of these power grabs. We have the capacity to make our own decisions; we have the strength to stand together. An Injury to One is an Injury to All!
Politicians and the media demonize teachers, office workers and those who need social services. We all need public services—libraries, schools, youth and senior centers, parks and a myriad infrastructural services. We will not stand by while children go hungry, while families are refused access to water and heat, while already inadequate transportation undergoes another round of cuts. We say no to cuts that destroy the social fabric of our community! We are for jobs and the welfare of the entire community!
We ask you to join Occupy Detroit in a rally and march against austerity on Thursday, November 17. We will march against cutbacks demanded of city, county and state workers. We march against the Emergency Manager legislation. We demand that our society prioritize human rights–not the maximization of corporate profit.
Join us on November 17 for a 3PM rally in Grand Circus Park. At 4PM we will march to the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center at the foot of Woodward. Our route will pass the Rosa Parks Bus Center (Bagley & Cass) and then march by the Wayne County offices in the Guardian Building on Griswold before reaching the municipal center at 4:30PM. We will rally there from 4:30-5:30PM.
No to Cuts! No to Austerity! No to Emergency Managers!
Marie Thornton, former Detroit school board member who fought emergency managers, school closings, and costly private contracts for eight years, helps lead first Occupy Detroit action; 87 percent of Detroit Public Schools state aid goes to pay debt.
AFSCME Local 2920 President Thomas B. Johnson II address union leaders at Nov. 10, 2011 press conference opposing Judge Sean Cox’s water department takeover
AFSCME Co. 25 files motion to intervene, bar contract changes
City union leaders join to support AFSCME
Rally set for Thurs. Nov. 17, 4:30 p.m. at CAYMC
By Diane Bukowski
Nov. 14, 2011
DETROIT – In the wake of a mass press conference held by city union leaders Nov. 10, Michigan AFSCME Council 25 on Nov. 14 filed a motion to intervene in the federal lawsuit against the water department and to bar massive changes to AFSCME’s contract with the city.
The union has also called on union members, the community, and Occupy Detroit to rally Thurs. Nov.17 at 4:30 p.m. outside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center,then march to the Guardian Building, where embattled Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano’s offices are located.
George W. Bush appointed Cox to federal bench
On Nov. 4, U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox issued a broad order attacking the rights of workers, Detroit residents, and the City Council with respect to the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department (DWSD) under union contracts and the City Charter. He also barred actions brought with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission and state courts challenging his ruling.
During the press conference, union leaders likened Cox to a slavemaster.
Cox and Detroit
“Cox is treating Detroit like it’s a slave plantation he gets to run,” said Attorney George Washington. Susan Glaser, president of the Senior Accountants, Analysts and Appraisers Association (SAAA), compared his naming of a “Special Master” to the appointment of a plantation overseer.
The motion, filed by Attorney Herbert Sanders of the Sanders Law Firm, contends that Cox’s Nov. 4 order violates the contracts and takings clauses of the U.S. Constitution. It also demands that Cox permanently bar “the modification, amendment, or termination of the AFSCME collective bargaining agreement.”
It notes that AFSCME was never contacted by Cox regarding his changes to its contract.
It says, “None of the recommended changes to the AFSCME collective bargaining agreement are even remotely connected to enforcement of the Clean Water Act.” The federal lawsuit against DWSD, #77-71100, under which Cox acted, was filed in 1977, specifically to address violations of that Act.
Atty. George Washington, Local 207 officers John RIehl and Mike Mulholland announce lawsuit against Synagro contract Jan. 26, 2099
“We are standing in defense of our city workers, members, and residents,” John Riehl, president of AFSCME Local 207, which represents 1,000 DWSD workers, said Nov. 10. “Detroit deserves better treatment of its workers and residents.” (Click on Riehl declaration to read Riehl’s affidavit filed in Cox’a court.)
Riehl noted, “Our union was highly instrumental in exposing and defeating the Synagro contract, brought by the Kwame Kilpatrick administration. Judge Cox’s order threatens to reinstate the same corruption that existed then.”
The U.S. Justice Department has brought extensive charges against Kilpatrick, former Water Department Director Victor Mercado, Kilpatrick aides, City Council member Monica Conyers and city council aides, among others, related to the Synagro contract.
BOWC chair James Fausone, representing Wayne County
Cox’s order largely transfers contracting and rate setting powers to the seven-member Detroit Board of Water Commissioners (BOWC). It is now dominated by three suburban commissioners because they have veto power on contract and rate votes, which require a supermajority. Many, like BOWC chair James Fausone, representing Wayne County, have ties to water contractors.
The entire Wayne County administration under Ficano is also now under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department largely related to allegedly corrupt contracting practices.
Riehl said the city administration has caused many problems with Clean Water Act compliance by understaffing the water department.
“There is a brain and experience drain because of attacks on pension rights,” he explained. “Every week, 10 0r more DWSD workers retire before more attacks come. The real shortages started under Kilpatrick and [former Water Department director Victor] Mercado with lay-offs and privatization.”
Former DWSD director Victor Mercado and former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, both under federal indictment
Kilpatrick laid off hundreds of DWSD workers in 2006 after Local 207 voted against a take-back contract.
The Council 25 motion contends among other declarations, “The collective bargaining agreement . . . encourages management to maintain a full staff of regular workers capable of running the plant on a daily basis. Daily operations and maintenance are subjected to better quality control and greater collective knowledge and skills when this work is done in-house.”
Thomas B. Johnson II is president of AFSCME Local 2920, which represents clerical and other city-wide classifications at DWSD.
Local 2920 Pres. Thomas B. Johnson II
“There is too much management and too many consultants in the Water Department, who have carte blanche to do whatever they want to do,” he said. “The Water Department has never been under a deficit so there has been no reason to lay-off our workers.”
Cox’s order bars city workers from other departments from using their seniority rights to bump into DWSD if they are laid off, as Mayor Bing is threatening. It thus represents an attack on ALL city workers, not just those at DWSD, Johnson agreed.
“Cox is trying to bust our unions,” Dempsey Addison, president of the Association of Professional and Technical Employees (APTE). “We are not going to stand for this. Nobody has absolute power, not even a judge.”
APTE Pres. Dempsey Addison at first Occupy Detroit march
Washington said that if Cox denies the union’s motion to intervene, “We will be in the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in 24 hours.”
Cox held a “status conference” on the AFSCME motion Nov. 14. Further details were not available at press time.
Detroit’s City Council earlier voted to hire its own attorney to advise it on Cox’s order, which overrules many of its powers, but to date has filed no action. Cox appointed Detroit City Council President Charles Pugh and President Pro-Tem Gary Brown to a four-member committee which issued a “Committee Plan” to him Nov. 2 recommending many of the changes he ordered.
SEAN COX CHAIRS U-M LAW SCHOOL MEETING OF RIGHT-WING FEDERALIST SOCIETY (video below)
The Federalist Society’s Student Division presented this speech and commentary at the 2008 Annual Student Symposium on March 8, 2008.
Speech and Commentary: An Originalist Judge and the Media
–Justice Stephen Markman, Michigan Supreme Court
–Prof. Richard Primus, University of Michigan Law School
–Mr. Pete Williams, NBC News
–Moderator: Judge Sean Cox, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
Mayor Bing uses shadowy E & Y report to demand city cutbacks
CUT DEBT TO THE BANKS, NOT WORKERS AND SERVICES!
By Diane Bukowski
November 14, 2011
Ernst & Young Detroit building towers over Campus Martius
DETROIT – Ernst & Young, author of the secret report on Detroit’s finances that Mayor Dave Bing is brandishing like a cudgel over the heads of workers and residents, faces lawsuits by the states of New York and New Jersey for actively helping Lehman Brothers cook their books over a seven year period.
Lehman, worth $600 billion, collapsed in 2008 in the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history. Its collapse was a key factor in the Wall Street’s subprime mortgage meltdown.
Despite Ernst & Young’s reputation, Bing is demanding heavy concessions from city workers and residents, after meeting in an illegal secret session with the entire City Council Oct. 26 to discuss the firm’s report. He plans to address the city as a whole about city finances Nov. 16 at 6 p.m. at the Northwest Activities Center.
Mayor Dave Bing listens approvingly to Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano discussing cutbacks during interview at 2009 Mackinac Island conference
Bing met with leaders of the city’s 40 plus union s Nov. 8 and gave them a two week deadline to comply with his demands.
Leamon Wilson, president of Local 312 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), said Bing specifically refused to give union leaders at the meeting the Ernst & Young report.
“He said the city will be broke by late April and he wants to cut $64 million,” Wilson reported. “He wants to eliminate furlough days and instead institute a 10 percent pay cut, replace overtime with straight time, get rid of the pension multiplier, totally privatize maintenance at DDOT, and lay-off 1000 workers. He ended the meeting with only four questions from us. He also said he doesn’t want to be the city’s emergency manager, that he was elected to be Mayor.”
City workers demand no attacks on pensions
Regarding Bing’s stance on becoming Detroit’s EM, Nolan Finley of the Detroit News commented Nov. 13, “The emergency manager law allows for public officials to ask for a consent agreement from the state that bestows on them certain powers of a state-appointed manager, without surrendering local control. That includes the ability to revise contracts to reduce budget-busting pension and health care obligations.”
Bing additionally demanded that city workers pay 30 percent of the cost of their health care, up 10 percent, saying the cuts in total would result in $118 million annually in savings. (Click on BINGS-UNION-DISCUSSION-POINTS[1] for copy of document Bing gave to the union leaders.)
Union leaders left the meeting enraged.
AFSCME Co. 25 President Al Garrett (r), Metro Detroit AFL-CIO President Saundra Williams (center)
Al Garrett, president of Michigan AFSCME Council 25, said, “Cuts and more cuts and more cuts, with little regret for the families of those who work for the city! At the end of the day he is saying your jobs still won’t be safe, but while you’re waiting to become unemployed, you’re going to make less, pay more for your health care, and decimate whatever pensions you’re going to get, and that’s life in Detroit.”
The Oct. 26 City Council agenda says the closed session on the Ernst & Young report was held to “discuss a privileged and confidential memo submitted by the Law Department dated October 21, 2011 entitled Report by Ernst & Young, LLP, Concerning the City of Detroit’s Cash Flow Analysis in the General Fund Area Beginning May 1, 2011 through August 26, 2011 as it Relates to the Emergency Financial Manager Legislation Otherwise Known as ‘The Local Government and School District Fiscal Accountability Act.’”
Council Pres. Pro-tem Gary Brown, Member Saunteel Jenkins, Pres. Charles Pugh; all have endorsed worker cuts
On the same day, the Council held another closed session to discuss another “privileged and confidential” matter: “The Necessity of Emergency Procurement for the Detroit Public Lighting Department for the Installation of New Lighting and Repair of the Grid System.” It later voted 5-4 for a three-quarter million dollar contract with DTE to fix 500 street lights out of 12,000 that are out.
The Council has also scheduled a Nov. 16 closed session “to discuss privileged and confidential legal opinions submitted by RAD and the Law Department entitled (1) Legal Rationale for Proposed Amendment of the Privatization Ordinance dated October 26, 2011; (2) City of Detroit Privatization Ordinance dated October 3, 2011; and (3) Documents Supporting the Proposed Ordinance to Amend Article V, Chapter 18 of the 1984 Detroit City Code, Finance and Taxation, Purchased and Supplies, Division 8, Privatization of Certain City Services, commonly known as the “Privatization Ordinance.”
Closed sessions of bodies like the City Council, by state statute, are narrowly limited to discussions of matters like lawsuits.
All Council members were contacted for their response on whether they voted for the secret session on the Ernst & Young report, whether they believed it was legal, and their stance on Bing’s demands to the unions. No council members had responded by press time.
Ernst & Young offices in New York
The Voice of Detroit and the Detroit Free Press have filed Freedom of Information Act requests for the Ernst & Young report, which cost $1.7 million of taxpayer funds, with the city’s Law Department.
VOD also contacted Ernst & Young’s media director Charles Perkins for comment on the New York and New Jersey lawsuits, with no response before press time.
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed that state’s suit against Ernst & Young in December, 2010.
WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell gestures next to Ernst & Young CEO and chairman James S. Turley during a session untitled "What Is the New Economic Reality?" on the opening day of the World Economic Forum annual meeting on January 26, 2011 in Davos. AFP PHOTO / FABRICE COFFRINI)
In a release, he said Ernst & Young engaged in accounting fraud for seven years, explicitly approving the surreptitious removal of tens of billions of dollars in liabilities from Lehman’s balance sheet, transferring it temporarily to overseas banks, in order to deceive the public and the market about the company’s true financial condition.
“This practice was a house-of-cards business model designed to hide billions in liabilities in the years before Lehman collapsed,” Cuomo said in a release. “Just as troubling, a global accounting firm, tasked with auditing Lehman’s financial statements, helped hide this crucial information from the investing public. Our lawsuit seeks to recover the fees collected by Ernst & Young while it was supposed to be using accountable, honest measures to protect the public.”
The Wall Street Journal reported in October, 2010 that the state of New Jersey had re-instituted legal action against the company.
“New Jersey’s investment division, which manages pension- and retirement-plan funds for over 700,000 state workers, including teachers, police and firemen, pumped $385 million into Lehman, purchasing a combination of stock and notes from the investment bank before its collapse,” said the WSJ. It said New Jersey lost $192 million on its Lehman investment.
“[Ernst & Young’s] review reports were false, as E&Y knew or should have known that Lehman’s quarterly financial statements were not prepared in accordance with ‘generally accepted accounting principles,’” the WSJ quotes from the suit. “E&Y had no reasonable basis for issuing its clean audit and review reports.”
Bail Out the People, not the Banks march on Wall Street
One of the Big Four accounting firms, Ernst & Young is headquartered in London, UK, and has member companies in over 140 countries, with global revenues of $22.9 billion. In 2010, Forbes magazine ranked it as the ninth largest private company in the U.S.
It has offices all over the world, including one on Wall Street and a spanking brand new green glass building glowering over downtown Detroit.
It is part of the global cabal of banks, mortgage companies and professional services firms which created the current economic crisis. They are now demanding that workers and poor people suffer for their actions.
Crains’ Detroit Business reported from an interview with the City Council’s fiscal analyst Irvin Corley in April of this year that the city cannot borrow more money to shore up its finances.
“The city can’t fund its deficit with borrowed money,” Corley said according to the article. “Detroit’s low credit rating makes short-term borrowing too expensive, long-term borrowing would require state legislation, and the city lacks a revenue stream to pledge as security for another bond sale.”
In June, Fitch Ratings downgraded Detroit’s Unlimited General Obligation bonds to BB- and its Limited General Obligation Bonds to B+, “outlook negative.” (Click on Fitch Downgrades Detroit bond ratings June 2011 for full report. It states essentially that Detroit’s decline was caused by the national economic crisis, which of course in turn was caused by Lehman Bros., Ernst & Young, Fitch Ratings, et. al.)
Among other reasons Fitch cited for the downgrade:
“The debt burden is exceptionally high, offset somewhat by a sizable amount of pension obligation bonds that result in well-funded pension plans.” Detroit borrowed $1.2 BILLION in pension obligation bonds in 2006. How that debt “offsets” the city’s other debt remains to be seen.
(L to r) Detroit CFO Sean Werdlow, Stephen Murphy of Standard & Poors, Joe O'Keefe of Fitch, and Deputy Mayor Saul Green urge City Countil to borrow $1.2 billion in pension bonds in 2006
Ironically, Fitch representative Joe O’Keefe recommended in 2006 that Detroit borrow that money, despite heavy opposition from some City Council members, who had to be forced to the table by police to make up a quorum.
At the time, O’Keefe said Fitch rated the city “A,” with a negative outlook if the city did not enact lay-offs and service cutbacks to deal with a $300 million budget deficit.
The Kwame Kilpatrick administration and the City Council borrowed the money. In 2009, the lender, UBS Financial Services, called in the debt, which would have caused total economic collapse in Detroit. The lender, among whose agents was former Mayor Dennis Archer, compromised by agreeing that bank trustees would directly receive Detroit’s casino tax revenues and state-revenue sharing funds so that the $1.2 billion debt would be paid before all else.
Therefore, according to recent reports, half of the city’s vendors, including those who supply parts for its buses, are going unpaid, and the city is threatening payless paydays for its workers.
According to Detroit’s 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the city’s total debt is approximately $7.7 billion, including the $1.2 billion pension obligation certificates.
Also according to the 2010 CAFR the city was scheduled to pay a total of $433,691,964 in debt to the banks in 2011. Of that, $216,418,043 was to be in interest alone. THE INTEREST ALONE IS FAR GREATER THAN THE CITY’S DEFICIT!
The U.S. government has bailed out the banks to the tune of trillions of dollars–time for the banks to put their heads on the chopping block, not the workers and people of Detroit.
US SUPREME COURT TO LOOK AT LIFE IN PRISON FOR JUVENILES
WASHINGTON November 7, 2011 (AP)
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether juveniles convicted of killing someone may be locked up for life with no chance of parole, a follow-up to last year’s ruling barring such sentences for teenagers whose crimes do not include killing.
The justices will examine a pair of cases from the South involving young killers who are serving life sentences for crimes they committed when they were 14.
Kuntrell Jackson
Both cases were brought by the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Ala. The institute said that life without parole for children so young “is cruel and unusual” and violates the Constitution.
The group says roughly six dozen people in 18 states are under life sentences and ineligible for parole for crimes they committed at 13 or 14.
Kuntrell Jackson was sentenced to life in prison in Arkansas after the shooting death of a store clerk during an attempted robbery in 1999. Another boy shot the clerk, but because Jackson was present he was convicted of capital murder and aggravated robbery.
Evan Miller, foreground, and Colby Smith, wait for a jailer to take them back to the lockup after the teens pleaded not-guilty to capital murder and robbery charges Thursday. Photo by Clyde Stancil 2/2/06
Evan Miller was convicted of capital murder during the course of arson. A neighbor, while doing drugs and drinking with Miller and a 16-year-old boy, attacked Miller. Intoxicated, Miller and his friend beat the man and set fire to his home, killing the 52-year-old man. Miller’s friend testified against him, and got life in prison with the possibility of parole.
The high court has moved toward judging juveniles less responsible than adults when considering severe sentences.
The high court ruled out the use of the death penalty for people under 18 in 2005. In May 2010, the court said that teenagers may not be locked up for life without a chance of parole if they haven’t killed anyone. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion in both of those decisions.
“The identical analysis which led to the results in those cases logically compels the conclusion that consigning a 14-year-old to die in prison through a life-without-parole sentence categorically violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments,” Miller’s lawyer Bryan Stevenson said in court papers. The Supreme Court should “make that logical conclusion the law of the land.”
The court will hear arguments next year.
The cases are Miller v. Alabama, 10-9646 and Jackson v. Arkansas, 10-9647.
VOD: click on the following links to read Supreme Court questions and state court of appeals decisions in the cases:
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear two cases involving whether life sentences without chance of parole for minors in death cases constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
With more “juvenile lifers” serving the mandatory sentences in Michigan than almost any other state, 358, the high court’s decision could have a large impact here.
The ruling comes as a similar case makes its way through federal court in Detroit. It was not immediately clear what impact Monday’s decision will have on the progress of the Michigan case.
In deciding to hear the two new cases, the Supreme Court is potentially extending the reach of two recent decisions involving how juveniles are treated in adult court.
In 2010, the court extended protections, ruling a minor could not be sentenced to life without parole in non-homicide cases.
In both cases, the majority of justices ruled juveniles’ mental abilities are lesser developed than adults, and sentencing them as such violates the Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment.
The new cases would move the bar even further, banning mandatory life involving juvenile homicides, including when the juvenile was present at a crime, but did not commit the actual killing. About one-third of Michigan juvenile lifers fall in that category.
Both inmates in the cases involve 14-year-olds. But some Supreme Court watchers believe the justices would be unlikely to confine their ruling to that specific age, given their prior rulings using the 18th birthday as the constitutional dividing line.
There are about 70 such prisoners nationwide, according to the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit law firm in Alabama that represents the inmates.
Six juvenile lifers in in Michigan were 14 at the time of their crimes, including Dontez Tillman, the state’s youngest. He was profiled Monday on Mlive.com.
Michigan families traveled from across the state in 2006 to support legislation that would have outlawed juvenile life without parole sentencing' they included families of prisoners as well as family members of victims. Photo: Diane Bukowski
Edward Sanders
VOD ed: Juvenile lifer Edward Sanders alerted us to this series of articles being published around the state by six different newspapers. Hopefully this coverage will encourage progress in the federal lawsuit being heard by U.S. District Court Judge John Corbett O’Meara, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of nine juvenile lifers. The last action on the case was Aug. 5, when the ACLU filed a response to the state’s motion for a stay pending interlocutroy appeal. Write Edward Sanders, #141545 at Kinross Correctional Facility, 16770 S. Watertower Drive Kincheloe, MI 49788.
November 06, 2011; Updated: Thursday, November 10, 2011
They were teenagers once, and did horrible things, or were in horrible places. People died. Sometimes at their hands; sometimes not. But they were present.
And for that, they were told they will die, too, in prison.
These are Michigan’s “juvenile lifers,” although most are much older now, sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole. And there are more in this state than in almost any other.
Keith Maxey
There is Keith Maxey, wounded in a drug theft gone bad. He was unarmed and fled, but another man was killed. A jury found the 16-year-old just as responsible as if he had pulled the trigger. Except the shooter got a lighter sentence.
There, too, are identical twins David and Michael Samel, arrested at 17 for beating a pool hall worker to death. Michael pleaded to a reduced charge and was released in 2009. David took his chances with a jury. He is in the 30th year of life without parole.
And there is Cedric King, 14 when he helped set up a marijuana thief to be killed. Except the court thought he was a year older, and the victim survived. Still, confusion has persisted for years over whether he was given the state’s severest punishment, or something less, a Booth Michigan investigation found.
In general, mandatory life without parole is reserved for first-degree murder, but that covers a range of crimes: premeditated killing; intentional or unintentional death during another felony; or aiding and abetting the previous crimes.
Here’s how the treatment of minors charged and convicted of such crimes has evolved:
Pre-1988: Only 17-years-olds automatically treated as adults; 15- and 16-year-olds waived to adult court only if juvenile judge approved. No one younger than 15 tried in adult court.
October 1988 through 1996: 15- and 16-year-olds automatically waived to adult court. A judge had two options: Mandatory life in adult prison, or send them to a juvenile facility for release no later than 21. The number of juvenile lifers more than doubled from the previous eight years.
1997 to now: 14-year-olds also automatically tried as adults. Prosecutors also can designate 14- to 16-year-olds for “adult-like” proceedings in juvenile court, and request those 13 and younger be subject to the same proceedings.The change gave juvenile judges three options:
Commit the minor to a juvenile facility until 21.
Sentence them as adults to life without parole.
Apply a “blended” sentence, where the minor would go to a juvenile facility until 21. The judge would then determine whether to order mandatory life.
Nathaniel Abraham on trial at 11; his feet could not reach the ground from his chair.
Nathaniel Abraham is the most famous case. He was 11 in 1997 when he killed 18-year-old Ronnie Green. He was charged with first-degree murder but convicted of second-degree murder. A juvenile judge chose to sentence him to a juvenile facility. Abraham was released in 2007 at 21, but was arrested 16 months later on a drug charge. His earliest release date is next August.
They interviewed nearly two dozen inmates, including some who committed their crimes before they could drive. They also talked to victims’ families, prosecutors, judges and lawmakers.
What they found was regret and bitterness, anger and forgiveness. They also found an issue measured more in shades of gray than black and white.
Ask Shirley Schwartz what her brother would think of imprisoning juveniles for life, and she pauses.
“That’s a really difficult question,” she finally says. Her college professor brother was “very liberal,” she recalls, an advocate for his urban neighborhood in Grand Rapids’ Heritage Hill. That was where he met his killers; Jerry Freid died after being beaten to death with a baseball bat during a burglary by a 16- and a 17-year-old.
Ask Schwartz the same question, what she thinks of life sentences for juveniles, and she does not hesitate.
“I never believed in the death penalty,” she says. “After this happened, I was pretty sure I could pull the switch. You can afford to be a liberal when it doesn’t touch you.”
Told one of her brother’s killers died in prison, Schwartz says one word.
“Good.”
A state industry
Michigan spends more than $10 million a year to house more juvenile lifers than all but one other state, Pennsylvania.
In all, 358 inmates are serving life sentences for crimes committed from ages 14 to 17. One in five has been in prison 25 years or longer. Continue reading →
Police have confirmed the shooting death of a young man in a gunfight that broke out near 12 Street BART police station, adjacent to Occupy Oakland camp at Frank Ogawa Plaza Thursday evening, the second night the city turned the lights out at the camp. Although investigators say the fight was not between protesting human rights workers at the camp, police say due to the incident, protesters must dissolve the camp, a city councilman is blaming the mayor, the mayor says she wants the camp dissolved.
Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan confirmed to ABC7 News that the shooting victim in a gunfight that broke out near BART police station and Occupy Oakland has passed away from his injuries.
“Six gunshots rang out shortly before 5 p.m. several feet from the 12th Street BART station adjacent to the plaza where Occupy protesters have set up camp,” reports ABC7.
Occupy Oakland holds candlelight vigil for shooting victim
The human rights Occupy protesters were the first to administer first aid to victims according to ABC News.
An acting spokesperson for the human rights defender protesters told ABC7 that maybe the victim had been hiding nearby from a person or a group of people at the encampment shortly before the incident.
City councilman Ignacio de la Fuente said in a phone interview with ABC7, “I have been very vocal on the fact that this cannot continue. I think fear has become a reality. This mayor has got to take responsibility for that.”
De La Fuente said the Occupy encampment “does a lot of harm to the city and the individuals, and they should just pack and leave — and if not, we should take whatever action is necessary.”
The Occupy protesters formed a human chain around the victim until help arrived and are holding a candlelight vigil this evening. Continue reading →
Prayer Rally Planned to Oppose Michigan TheCall Event
Updated: Wednesday, 09 Nov 2011, 3:57 PM EST
Posted By: myFOXDetroit.com Staff
DETROIT (AP) – A coalition of Detroit clergy and community activists plan to march to a downtown football stadium and hold a prayer rally while thousands gather inside for a 24-hour Christian event known as TheCall.
The gathering inside Ford Field espouses anti-Muslim, anti-homosexual and anti-abortion beliefs and is designed to separate people of various faiths, the Rev. Charles Williams II told reporters Wednesday.
TheCall is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Friday. Organizers have said Detroit is a “microcosm of our national crisis” that includes economic and racial struggles, as well as “the rising tide of the Islamic movement.”
Detroit area Muslim leaders have said they fear some attendees might provoke or disrupt Friday prayers at local mosques.
“We certainly don’t believe that the Muslim community is what cast a dark shadow over the city of Detroit in terms of economics,” said Williams, pastor of Historic King Solomon Church in Detroit.
“Our prayer will be a prayer where we will be calling on God to help us solve the foreclosure crisis; to help us solve the job crisis; to help us solve the education crisis. This is the prayer we should be calling on, not a message of hate against those who are United States residents.”
The Associated Press left a message Wednesday seeking comment from Lou Engle, co-founder of TheCall assemblies.
Concern over Lou Engle’s Views as Prayer Summit Comes to Detroit
Updated: Tuesday, 08 Nov 2011, 10:07 PM EST
By BILL GALLAGHER WJBK | myFOXDetroit.com
DETROIT (WJBK) – Lou Engle is leading a prayer summit at Ford Field in Detroit this Friday and Saturday. His controversial remarks about homosexuals have raised concerns from Detroit religious leaders.
Rev. Charles Williams II, pastor of the historic King Solomon Baptist Church, is one of those leaders worried about Engle’s views.
“Any man who stands in Uganda and promotes a policy that would kill thousands of homosexuals [there] I think, obviously, is on the outside of what the real call for our Christian mission should actually be,” said Williams.
Muslim leaders are concerned about Engle’s belief that people of that faith are demonically possessed and require conversion to Christianity. The head of the Council on American Islamic Relations has spoken out against the call session in Detroit.
Meanwhile, Rev. Williams is calling for religious tolerance.
“I don’t believe, quite frankly, that the way he goes about his mission in terms of berating Muslims and Islam itself is the way to do that,” he said.
Lou Engle says Detroit needs economic and spiritual salvation.
Williams says Engle should concentrate his prayers on his native Minnesota.
“I would say to him that he can go back to Minnesota and spend his time praying in Minnesota, hopefully, that they might be able to be saved also,” he told us.
Williams says he welcomes prayers for Detroit, but not divisive rhetoric.
“I think most of us in the City of Detroit and I think most Christians have much more sense then some of [these] radical religious right values that this guy’s promoting,” he explained. “We just don’t need that kind of politics of deception nor fear here in Detroit.”
Engle and representatives of TheCall did not return phone calls for comment.
AFSCME Council 25 president Al Garrett joins Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, State Sen. Coleman Young and thousands of workers in Lansing rally against water take-over Feb. 23
ELIMINATES PEOPLE’S RIGHT TO VOTE ON SALE OF DWSD
Demolishes union contract protections, privatization ordinance
Bars action by Michigan Employment Relations Commission, state courts, union grievances
Diminishes access by Black-owned businesses and Detroit resident construction workers to DWSD contracts
Adopts politicians’ program to benefit the regional private sector
By Diane Bukowski
November 9, 2011 – Initial Analysis
U.S. Judge Sean Cox, appointed to federal bench by George W. Bush, previously to local bench by John Engler; member of right-wing Federalist Society
(City unions have called a press conference to announce legal action against Cox’s order Thurs. Nov. 10 at 1:30 p.m. at the AFSCME Council 25 headquarters at 600 W. Lafayette in downtown Detroit.)
Detroit – U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox severed Detroiters’ control over the Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) by federal fiat Nov. 4, most significantly by bypassing the City Charter to eliminate the people’s right to vote on any sale of the department or its assets, and to negate the charter’s privatization ordinance.
The revised City Charter still maintains the right to a popular vote on the sale of both DWSD and D-DOT assets, as well as the privatization ordinance.
Under Cox’s order, the Detroit city council will only have the right to approve rate increases for Detroiters, not suburban customers, after the Board of Water Commissioners recommends them. His order gives most power over contracts to the Water Department director, who he has announced will be selected by the end of this month. Cox vested most executive control over DWSD in that director, even bypassing Detroit’s mayor.
Cox has made Wayne County's Water Commissioner James Fausone chair of the Board of Water Commissioners; he also sits on the 4-member "Root Cause Committee"
Under still-standing City Charter provisions, the director serves “at the pleasure” of the Board of Water Commissioners.
Cox, Bing, and tri-county executives reconstituted the Board last February to include three out of seven members from outside Detroit. They have veto power over contracts and rates because votes on those matters require a super-majority.
While disenfranchising residents, Cox executed a broad-ranging attack on workers’ rights guaranteed by union contracts, Civil Service, and state law. He also targeted Black-owned Detroit-based businesses and resident workers, limiting their access to DWSD work by reducing or eliminating previously guaranteed credits in contract selection.
Regional officials will thus benefit from being able to more freely hand out lucrative DWSD deals to their political cronies outside of Detroit
He did not explain how these actions would improve DWSD compliance with the federal Clean Water Act, which was allegedly the goal of the 1977 federal lawsuit under which he is acting, other than claiming they would streamline purchasing and hiring and firing processes.
DWSD's Lake Huron water treatment plant. DWSD is the third largest water utllity in the country. It provides water service to almost one million people in Detroit and three million people in 126 neighboring Southeastern Michigan communities throughout Wayne, Oakland, Macomb St. Clair, Lapeer, Genesee, Washtenaw and Monroe counties. It has 2,000 employees, 1,000 of whom are represented by AFSCME. Detroiters built and paid for the entire system through bond proposals.
Cox basically separates DWSD from city government
“The DWSD, and all of the assets of the DWSD, shall remain a department of the City of Detroit,” Cox declared in his order. (Click on Sean Cox DWSD order 11 4 11 to read entire order.)
However, Cox ordered that all functions performed for DWSD by other departments, including Purchasing, Finance, Human Rights, and Labor Relations, shall either be eliminated or brought in-house to DWSD, which will cause significant cutbacks, financial losses, and lay-offs in those departments.
He fell short of “the more intrusive remedy” he had threatened. He appeared to be leery of court precedents he cited earlier which require the federal government to “narrowly tailor” any limitation or abolition of local government authority.
Instead, he left many of the actions to a secretive “Root Cause Committee” that he appointed, whose recommendations he adopted. (Click on Cox Committee DWSD plan 11 2 11 to read Committee Plan.)
Chris Brown, Detroit COO and Root Cause Committee member
The committee is composed of Mayor Dave Bing’s Chief Operating Officer Chris Brown (formerly of DTE and other private utilities), Wayne County’s representative on the Board of Water Commissioners, Walter Fausone (who has connections with water contractors), and Detroit City Council President Charles Pugh and President Pro-Tem Gary Brown, with similar ties. The committee reports to Cox’s Special Master David Ottenwess, an attorney who has specizlized in defending health institution from medical malpractice lawsuits.
Special Master David Ottenwess
In the order, he also appointed Fausone as chair of the Board of Water Commissioners, replacing Mary Blackmon of Detroit, and ordered the Board to change their by-laws in accordance with his decree.
He mandated that the Root Cause committee will continue to meet IN SECRET to initiate further change. Pugh and Brown have even refused to share internal information from the Committee with the rest of the City Council, let alone the public they represent.
Cox ordered that the committee report back to Ottenwess by Feb. 4 with further changes, at which time he will decide if he needs to take more “intrusive” action.
BROAD ATTACK ON WORKERS’ RIGHTS
The Committee stopped short of enacting outright attacks on union contracts, but Cox wasn’t so leery of incurring the wrath of labor. He took his cue not only from the committee’s claims that union contracts stand in the way of compliance with the federal Clean Water Act, but from a 78 page “confidential” report issued by DWSD’s “Executive Management Team,” headed by Chris Brown, and secondarily by DWSD Deputy Director Darryl Latimer.
“The Court has carefully considered all options and concludes that the least intrusive means of effectively remedying these impediments [produced by labor contracts] to compliance is to: 1) keep all current CBAs [collective bargaining agreements] that cover DWSD employees in force, but strike and enjoin those current CBA provisions or work rules that threaten short-term compliance; and 2) Order that, in the future, the DWSD shall negotiate and sign its own CBAs that cover only DWSD employees, and prohibit future DWSD CBAs from containing certain provisions that threaten long-term compliance.
Cox attacked the bedrock of union contracts, seniority, in several ways:
He barred future contract provisions providing for workers laid off from other city departments to bump into DWSD. (After a city-wide lay-off of clerical workers in 1992, many ended up at DWSD and were able to advance within the city ranks as a result.)
He ordered an immediate end to using seniority as the primary tool in promotions.
He struck seniority rules pertaining to overtime work, saying instead “the most capable” workers should be assigned.
He attacked contract provisions guaranteeing job security for DWSD workers, most of whom are city residents.
“DWSD CBAs shall not prohibit subcontracting or outsourcing and the Court hereby strikes and enjoins any provisions in current CBA’s that prohibit the DWSD from subcontracting or outsourcing,” Cox said.
Documents with his order say that DWSD can operate with a reduced work force at the lower levels, but provide for higher pay for elite management team officials.
He ordered stepped-up “performance reviews” by supervisors, generally viewed by union members as arbitrary evaluations based on personal likes and dislikes, as well as increased disciplinary actions, with an extended time frame of three years for them to remain on workers’ records.
He directly attacked the capacity of union officials to be released from the job to handle union affairs, limiting it to “grievance hearings and union negotiations.” Contracts have always required that union officials be present during disciplinary actions, and allowed their release for preliminary consultations with workers and supervisors.
Not satisfied with demolishing locally based worker protections, Cox also ordered the following:
“The Court enjoins the Wayne County Circuit Court and the Michigan Employment Relations Commission from exercising jurisdiction over disputes arising from the changes ordered by this Court. The Court also enjoins the unions from filing any grievances, unfair labor practices, or arbitration demands over disputes arising from the changes ordered by this Court.”
Cox’s order includes a separate DWSD Procurement Policy (click on Cox order DWSD procurement 11 2 11 for full policy) that will severely hurt the chances of Black-owned, Detroit based businesses to win contracts with DWSD.
“In the procurement of goods or commodities, DWSD shall only use an invitation for Bis in which the price factor shall be the only factor considered in the award of a contract,” the policy reads. Cox claims that problems in DWSD with Clean Water Act compliance have been exacerbated by other “bureaucratic “ requirements.
Price Equalization Credits for businesses in certain categories will be minimal:
Brown and the DWSD executive management team further recommend that DWSD use contract procurement lists already in place with Wayne County and the State of Michigan, in their “Synopsis of Capital Improvement Program” report, instead of the City of Detroit roster.
They also recommend the elimination of the use of Human Rights Department clearances (which guarantee that businesses utilize certain minimal standards of employment with regard to workers of color and women).
Additionally, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s Executive Order #1, which replaced Mayor Coleman Young’s Executive Order #22 after the passage of the anti-affirmative action Proposal 2, requires that 51 percent of workers on city-funded construction projects be Detroit residents.
It is already practically ignored across the board, but Brown and team would outright bar any rules requiring residency of workers.
His order also eliminates the requirement for Detroit tax clearances, which guarantee that contractors are paid up on property and income taxes owed to the city before approval.
(Bukowski retired from the City of Detroit after 25 years. For 20 years, she was an elected union official with AFSCME Local 457 and active in fighting privatization of city services and jobs, beginning with the privatization of Detroit General Hospital in 1980. She was a co-founder of the Coalition to Stop Privatization and Save Our City.)
Stay tuned to the Voice of Detroit for update on union press conference and other news and analysis of this attack on Detroit’s most valuable asset.
Good Jobs Now is a broad coalition of community groups, faith leaders, concerned citizens and labor who are committed to solving the issues facing our neighborhoods and holding decision makers and elected officials accountable to create jobs and find solutions to those problems, Now.
The issues we are facing:
Detroit is suffering from unemployment rates worse than the Great Depression, coupled with a lack of job opportunities.
There are abandoned and foreclosed homes at a level we have never seen before.
Our educational system is in a crisis, leaving our children unprepared to compete for what jobs there are.
The rising crime rate has made our neighborhoods unsafe and has caused a dramatic drop in population as people seek safer communities.
Click on GJN recruit for form to sign up with Good Jobs Now. Send to 2604 Fourth Street, Detroit, MI 48202.
First Posted: 11/8/11 09:22 PM ET Updated: 11/8/11 10:08 PM ET
WASHINGTON — Ohioans overturned a divisive anti-union law on Tuesday, delivering a significant defeat to Republican Gov. John Kasich and a victory to labor unions.
Ohio governor John Kasich also signed law allowing guns in bars
Immediately after the results came in, union officials sent out statements declaring success.
“One message rang loud and clear tonight in Ohio and across the country: those who spend their time scapegoating workers and pushing a partisan agenda will only strengthen the resolve of working people,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. “From the very beginning, it’s been clear that Gov. Kasich, and indeed many politicians, were pushing an agenda that was about politics, not about solving our nation’s problems or creating jobs.”
“Even after John Kasich locked the doors to democracy and shut out everyday heroes from the Statehouse, in the cold, blister of February — working people never lost hope. We marched in the spring, circulated petitions in the summer and now, this fall, we delivered a win for all working people by defeating Issue 2, repealing Senate Bill 5,” added Becky Williams, president of SEIU District 1199 in Ohio.
Video from WE ARE OHIO: The WE ARE OHIO coalition brought together thousands of union members, community activists and concerned citizens to build opposition to Issue 2 on the November 8 ballot. A NO VOTE on Issue 2 overturns Ohio Senate Bill 5 which eliminated collective bargaining rights for public employees. Members of the Ohio Education Association were critical in the coalition’s efforts to defeat Issue 2.
Kasich held a press conference shortly after the fate of Issue 2 had been declared, saying it was time for him to “take a deep breath” and figure out what to do next.
“When I say it is a time to pause, it is right now, on this issue,” he said. “The people have spoken clearly. You don’t ignore the public. Look, I also have an obligation to lead. I’ve been leading since the day I took this office, and I’ll continue to do that. But part of leading is listening and hearing what people have to say to you.”
Ohioans rallied against SB 5 by the tens of thousands at state capitol and elsewhere earlier this year.
Kasich signed SB 5 into law on March 31, although the law was put on hold during the referendum campaign. The labor-aligned group We Are Ohio organized the anti-Issue 2 effort, and Building A Better Ohio led the pro-Issue 2 fight.
Tuesday’s defeat may have nullified SB 5, but parts of the law may not be dead in the long term. While much of the public attention has centered on the law’s ban on collective bargaining for public employees, the law also contained provisions to require public employees to contribute to their health care and pension benefits, along with pushing merit pay for teachers — proposals that polled well in the run-up to the election.
Ohio State Rep. Mike Foley (D) said the Republican leadership in the legislature may try to pass these proposals one by one when they reconvene in January.
“They could act and take bits and pieces of it and try a new bill on teacher merit pay or health care…or any of the parts of the bill that they think they can get passed,” Foley said. “I don’t know if they will. We’ll have to see. … I think some of the Republican members on their side of the aisle are going to start looking at their leadership funny if they come back with another collective bargaining bill.”
“We certainly are going to be ready for that, if we’re still in the same kind of political situation of them controlling the state legislature and governor’s office,” added AFL-CIO Political Director Mike Podhorzer. “We’re hoping the vote on Tuesday will have demonstrated this is enormously unpopular. Continue reading →
